Level 9 National Framework of Qualifications Generating Evidence for Practice Ethics Assignment

Learning Outcomes for Ethics Assignment

On successful completion of the programme, the student will be able to

Please note that all assignments submitted must be the original work of the student and have not been submitted previously for a different programme of study

Assessment Task and Description

Ethics Assignment (1500 – 2000 words):

Critically discuss the ethical issues associated with the research carried out in each of the two papers below. This should include a discussion of the ethical issues inherent in the types of research conducted, along with a discussion of how ethical issues are acknowledged within the papers.

Byermoen, K. R., Brembo, E. A., Egilsdottir, H. Ö., Eide, T., Heyn, L. G., Moen, A., & Eide, H.     (2023) Newly graduated nurses use and further development of assessment skills—An in-depth qualitative study. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 79, 3286–3298.

Ritmala-Castren, M., Salanterä, S., Holm, A., Heino, M., Lundgrén-Laine, H., & Koivunen, M.   (2022). Sleep improvement intervention and its effect on patients’ sleep on the ward. Journal of   Clinical Nursing, 31, 275–282.

Guide to Assignment

This guide has been developed to help you prepare and submit your Ethics assignment for the Generating Evidence for Practice module, which forms year 2 of the MSc programmes.

You should read this guide carefully and refer to it when preparing your assignment. You are also reminded to refer to the student writing guidelines during this process and to adhere to the School requirements on the submission of assignments. This is a useful assignment in that it will prepare you for your systematic review and assessing the ethical nature of the included studies, and acknowledgement of ethical issues within the papers themselves.

Writing up your Assignment

This ethics assignment should be commenced as soon as you have completed the session on research ethics. Drafting assignments takes time, and your final assignment will be the result of a number of versions. This is, relatively speaking a short assignment and is a good opportunity for you to put into practice and further develop your academic writing in preparation for your thesis. You may write in the 1st or 3rd person.

When writing, ensure that you:

• Maintain confidentiality of individuals and your organisation at all times

Structure of your Assignment Introduction

Your assignment should begin with an introduction. The introduction will set the context for the assignment and should map out for the reader/examiner how your assignment will flow. Summarise the papers in a sentence or 2 each (for eg, this was a qualitative research study which involved interviewing nurses in the clinical setting) and state the ethical issues encountered.

Critical Discussion of Ethical Issues

This is the main body of your assignment, and you should critically discuss the ethical issues inherent in the research presented in the papers. You should link these ethical issues to an ethical framework, eg, principles of ethics/deontology. For eg, consent was obtained…this is linked to the principle of autonomy. What ethical principles were upheld, not? You should note within your assignment if ethical issues have been acknowledged and appropriately addressed by the authors during the research and within the paper itself. Your discussion should reference appropriate literature. You can present this assignment in many ways:

• Discuss each of the 2 papers individually and use each as a heading
• Integrate your discussion across the papers under headings associated with an ethical framework
• Integrate your discussion across papers under headings such as consent, confidentiality, etc You may not have sufficient word count to discuss everything you want to, so name the issues, indicating that within the constraints of the assignment, you will only discuss x, y, and z.

Conclusion

Your conclusion should tie the assignment together and remind the reader briefly about what has been discussed. You should not include any new information, nor should any references appear in the conclusion.